Hey guys, Dark back again with the second real chapter of The Dusted Grimm. In this chapter, as the name implies, we'll be getting our teams together, but I'm pretty sure you guys already know who they are. We'll be getting dorms, settling in, and starting classes. In any case, this chapter probably won't be as long as Initiation was, but who knows. Forwards, to the Team Ceremony!
Logan
After we took out the Nevermore, which was really cool by the way, and already has Tobin as a bit of a local celebrity, much to her annoyance. They had met back up with the other four, the 8 turned to the cliff they had been launched from and began to climb.
They reached the top, and were congratulated by Headmaster Ozpin and the woman who he assumed was his partner or an assistant headmistress of some kind. Ozpin told them that team selection would be that night at 20:00. He said the rest of the day was theirs to do with as they please. They walked back towards the school, and randomly, Shane spoke up,
"I just realized I haven't introduced you two to my partner," looking at Logan and Tobin.
"I was wondering when you would pick up on that," Logan replied, with a smirk on his face. This got a laugh out of the blue haired girl, whose name he would soon know. He looked at Tobin to see if he had gotten a smile from her, but her face had remained stoic. He wondered what was going on in that beautiful, amazing… "No Logan, not now," he admonished himself.
"Haha, Logan. Ok, this is Cyanna Nainaria, though I've already named her Cya. You saw that she fights with two knives, Yin and Yang. Her semblance is shadow creation. That's about all I know, and now so do you." He took a bow, and then looked up, like he was expecting some kind of applause. He hit Logan in the back with his tail as he walked off, to who knew where, but if had to guess, Shane was going to get food. He looked back, and saw that Cyanna had also disappeared. He looked to Tobin, but she turned away and walked to a tree. She pulled her Scroll out and held it horizontally in front of her face. He wondered what she was doing, and then he saw her swipe from the right to the left and guessed she was reading something. He decided to leave her to read, and walked off towards the garden he had seen near the entrance to the school.
When he reached the garden, he climbed a tree that had plenty of branches that would support his weight. He sat cross legged, and worked to clear his mind of anything and everything. He eventually succeeded, and reached a meditative state that emptied him of all stress and fear. He thought of nothing, and simply rested, reaching an inner peace that truly felt amazing. He had tried to get Shane to do it before, but his brother was way too ADHD to reach anything close to where Logan was now.
"How did I know I'd find you meditating Logan," a voice called up.
"Think of the Devil and he shall appear," he deadpanned, annoyed that his meditation had been interrupted.
"I'm flattered that you were thinking of me bro, but do you have any idea what time it is?" Logan looked up, finding the sun above him.
"Oh shit, is it that late?!" Their father had taught them to read time from the sun's position, and with that skill he had seen that it was already 19:30.
"Yeah bro, you still haven't showered yet either, have you? There are showers off of the ballroom that we can use, until we get our dorms for tonight. I don't think you want to be up there getting called for teams looking like you do. You definitely don't want to smell like you do either." Logan looked down at himself, just noticing the sweat on his v neck and how messed up his hair was.
"Yeah, no kidding. All right, I'm heading back now. Speed shower time." With that, he stood, jumped from his spot in the tree, and took off at a near sprint back towards the school.
The speed he was running at had him in the ballroom in under 5 minutes, giving him 25 minutes to shower, fix his hair, and dress. He figured that he would actually fohawk his hair for the ceremony, seeing as it was pretty formal. He grabbed another v neck and pair of black jeans and headed for the shower.
About ten minutes later, he climbed out of the shower, a towel wrapped around his waist and his hair still wet. He looked at himself in the mirror that had a slight covering of steam on it. He saw his dark brown hair, his light blue, almost gray eyes, and his perked ears. His biceps were seen, though not as obvious as Shane's. His chest was also defined. His abs were noticeable, though not ridiculous or super defined like some of the people you see at the beach. He put the clothes he had brought in on, and walked back into the ballroom, his feet bare against the cold wood of the room. Most of the other students were already there, milling about and chatting amongst each other. He grabbed socks and his new pair of Nike HyperRev 2015 high tops, put them on, and grabbed some hair gel from his bag. He walked back into the bathroom to fix his hair, checking his scroll for the time. He still had ten minutes to use, though he'd rather be done in about five, so he was sure not to be late. He spiked his hair up, molding it towards the middle. He put some gel in his hands, and ran it through his hair to keep it where it was, then he put his bangs up, meeting them in the middle just like the top of his hair. He checked his hair in the mirror, and, deeming it acceptable, walked back to the ballroom. He left his hoodie by his bag, deciding to just go with the v neck.
He picked out Cyanna's blue hair and her gauges and guessed that Shane wouldn't be far. He had seen Tobin when he walked in, and she had given him a nod, which he had taken as "I'll be there in a minute." He walked over to Cyanna, and found Shane standing a few feet away, talking to the Panther Faunus that had fought the Deathstalker with the other two whose names he didn't know, as well as Katariah. He walked over to Shane, throwing his arm around his shoulder as he walked up.
Shane pushed him off and spoke, "Hey Logan. This is Endaria by the way. She's a Panther Faunus." The Faunus looked at him and gave him a nod, which he returned. "Not much of a talker," he thought to himself. Out loud, he said,
"You ready for teams Shane? I wonder if we'll get placed together."
"I hope so bro. It'd be nice to get to fight with you for the next four years. I wonder what they'd call us? Remember that Dad said teams were named by color."
"That's right, I do remember that… What was his called again?" By then, Cyanna had walked over, choosing to stand next to Shane. She gave Logan a bright smile, and returned the nod from the Panther Faunus. "She definitely preferred nods over speaking," Logan thought again. Cyanna spoke,
"Your Dad went to Beacon Shane? You hadn't told me that yet."
Shane answered, "Yeah, he did. His team graduated first in their class, and he was well known around Vale and Atlas for his work as a Hunter. You might have heard of him. Elias Walker."
"Oh yeah, I've heard that name over the years. You two have some shoes to fill." Logan nodded, still not super comfortable around this girl. It took him time to get comfortable enough to speak around new people, though that time seemed to have disappeared around Tobin. She just clicked with him, though he wasn't sure why.
"Definitely ones we plan to fill," Shane answered after a second, noticing that Logan wasn't going to speak. Logan felt a hand come to rest on his shoulder. He turned and saw golden eyes looking back at him. She gave him a simple nod, and he wondered why she couldn't offer even him a simple smile. It bothered him for some reason, though he wasn't really sure what it was.
Tobin - About 15 minutes earlier
She heard steps pass by her bed area, and she looked up from her book. She saw Logan walk by, his feet bare, which struck her as odd. She looked up his body, noticing he didn't have his hoodie on either. She saw his hair then, and realized that he must have just showered, because it was still damp. He walked over to his bag, grabbed a pair of socks, put them on, and then grabbed his shoes. She saw that they were Nike high tops with a golden swoosh, but different than the ones he had worn in the Forest earlier that day. These looked newer, which would explain why he hadn't worn them in the Forest. He put them on as well, then reached into his bag and grabbed what looked like hair gel. He walked back out of the ballroom, presumably to the bathroom to do whatever it was he was going to do with the gel. She turned back to her book and continued reading after checking the time on her Scroll. 19:50, so she had about five minutes to continue reading.
She had come back to the ballroom at 18:45 so she had time to shower before the Teams ceremony. She had done so, then come back to her sleeping area to read again until it was time for the ceremony. Students had filed in as the time got closer to 20:00, but she didn't see Logan until he rushed in around 19:30, grabbed another pair of clothes, and jogged back out of the room. She wondered what he had gotten so caught up in that he had lost track of time so easily. He didn't seem the type to her.
He came back into the room just as she finished a chapter in her book, about to close the cover of her book about a sniper in the fictional land of Earth. He was the deadliest sniper on the planet, and he had been a soldier for the country that was called America. She found the book very interesting, especially because it was about a sniper. She closed the cover, and looked up at Logan. She kept her face empty of emotion, but only barely. His blue eyes were looking into hers, a question showing in them. She guessed he was wondering if she was ready for the ceremony, so she nodded. He looked away, and she let herself stare, even though she knew she couldn't get involved with him. He had styled his hair into a fohawk, though it was slightly messy. She thought it enhanced the look. "I can look, but I can't get involved," she told herself. She had decided earlier that she would avoid a relationship with him because it would lead to way too many questions that she never wanted to answer. She'd be nothing to him but a friend, and not even an amazing one at that. They'd be partners, but nothing more. It hurt her to shut down her chances, but she could never be what he needed. She was insecure, she wasn't beautiful, and she could never give him a trusting relationship, because she could never answer his questions. It brought too much pain.
She checked her Scroll again, seeing the time was 19:55. She stood, walking over to where Logan stood with his brother, Cyanna, and the Panther Faunus that had fought the Death Stalker with the other three. She had seen the Faunus reading before, and she seemed pretty quiet. She made a mental note to get to know her. She reached Logan and laid her hand on his shoulder, about 13 cm above her own shoulder. He turned to her, his eyes meeting hers. She fought back the instinct to smile at him, and managed a nod instead. She saw a flicker of emotion roll past his eyes, but it was too quick for her to work out what it had been. He nodded back, and she moved to stand next to him.
She had to get her hormones under control. All he had done was look at her, and she had wanted to smile to him, even hug him. She had never wanted to give anyone a smile before, other than her… "I need to stop thinking of them too," she thought to herself. Logan brought something out of her though, something she had never felt. She wanted to know about him, she wanted to be near him, but she couldn't. Being with him would bring too many questions out of him, and she couldn't answer them. She saw Ozpin climb onto the stage, and she used him a distraction to get her thoughts off of Logan and her feelings.
Ozpin spoke, "Welcome, first years, to the Team Ceremony. Tonight you will be placed with your team, and a leader will be chosen. You have been placed together based on many things, including how you fight together and how your personalities will mesh. If you have any problems with your team, you may speak to me, though I make no promises on how much good it will do. For now, lets begin." She kind of tuned out until she saw a picture she recognized on the screen behind Ozpin. It was the big black guy with the huge muscles. Ozpin announced as more pictures appeared,
"Onyx Macto, Katariah Accera, Endaria Argia, and Blaze Elementi. The four of you will fight together as team K-O-B-E, or Kobe (AN: pronounced Koh - Bee). You will be led by… Katariah Accera. Congratulations to the four of you. You may see Professor Goodwitch once the ceremony concludes for dorm assignments and class schedules. Tobin looked around and noticed that she, Logan, Cyanna, and Shane were the final four students to be sorted into teams. Shane was smiling at Logan, as was Cyanna. Logan smiled back, seemingly happy to be teamed up with his brother. She turned her head from her new teammates, knowing that even she wouldn't be able to hold back a smile at this new development. She let the smile out once turned away, then let it fade as she turned back.
"Logan Walker, Cyanna Nainaria, Tobin Aurus, and Shane Walker. The four of you will fight together as team S-C-L-T, team Scarlet. You fought well together during initiation, and the staff and I saw no reason to break up chemistry that has already begun forming. You will be led by… Logan Walker. Congratulations to you all. You as well may pick up your dorm assignments and class schedules from Professor Goodwitch. Logan climbed the steps of the stage, a huge smile on his face, with her right behind. Cyanna was behind her, and Shane behind her. They stepped forward onto the stage, lined up horizontally, in their order.
"This concludes our ceremony tonight. Once again students, welcome to Beacon. I hope that you find the knowledge you seek within our walls. Get your dorm assignments from Professor Goodwitch, and move your belongings to them. The school would like to have its ballroom back. You are dismissed." Ozpin stepped off the stage.
"Hey Fearless Leader, will you get our schedules and dorm assignment," Shane called out to Logan.
"Bro, I'm the leader. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to delegate that stuff to my underlings," Logan answered, but he walked towards Goodwitch all the same. Tobin turned towards her stuff. She rolled up the sleeping bag she had slept in the night before, packed it away, and made sure she didn't leave any of her books behind. She saw Logan walking over to her, Shane and Cyanna behind him, holding a paper, likely their schedules. Logan held out a paper for her, and she took it, thanking him.
"Shane, Cyanna, you guys can go get your stuff, meet me and Tobin up at the room. You already know which it is."
"Cool, see you in 5 Fearless Leader."
"Quit calling me that," Logan responded, though the smile on his face showed he didn't really care. He turned back to her as Shane walked away with Cyanna.
"You've got all your stuff ready?"
"Yeah," she replied, "I'm all good. Pack your stuff up and we can head up. What dorm do we have?"
"We are on floor 3, dorm 1. Right by the stairs, which is nice." He turned back to his stuff, threw all of his dirty clothes into his bag with no care, and turned back to her in about a minute, his belongings packed.
"I think the stairs are this way," he told her, walking towards the exit, turning left outside the ballroom, leading her to a large set of stairs that led up and down. She wondered what was downstairs, but now wasn't the time to find out.
Logan
He climbed the stairs, reaching the third floor after about a minute. He stepped onto the landing, noticing the hallway was fairly plain, with cream walls and lights running down the walls in between about every third room. The hallway wasn't extremely long, Logan saw about 6 rooms on each wall, but he'd guess that not all of them were filled, at least not with first year teams. Turning to his left, he saw dorm 1, his team's dorm, and to his right was dorm 2. The door to dorm 2 was hanging open, and he poked his head in out of curiosity. Inside, he saw the guy with the orange hair, Blaze if he remembered correctly from the ceremony. Next to Blaze was Katariah, and the other two weren't in the room yet. Katariah noticed their presence in the room, looking up at them with a smile on her face.
"Hey Logan, congrats on team leader. And you're Tobin right? I think I'm remembering right," she said to the two of them.
"Thanks Katariah, and congrats to you too. And yes, this is Tobin." He saw her nod to Katariah, and Katariah smiled at her, nodding back.
"She nods like Endaria I see. Is that a Faunus thing or something," Katariah asked, laughing to show that she was kidding.
"It might just be a cat thing, who knows," he responded, laughing with her. "We are right across the hall, so I guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other. I've got to unpack and call a bed before Shane gets back, so we'll see you tomorrow probably."
"Alright, bye guys," Kat responded. "Nice to meet you guys," Blaze called out from behind her.
"You too, we'll see you guys around." He turned to walk out of the room, Tobin just ahead of him. Across the hall was their dorm, and a scanner was next to it. Maybe it was already in his scroll. He put his scroll up to the scanner, and the door clicked open. Tobin looked at him, like she was wondering how he knew how to do that, but she didn't ask, so he didn't answer. Walking through the doorway, he surveyed the room. There were four uncovered mattresses on oak bed frames, each situated in a corner, though he figured they could move them around if they wanted. In the middle of the left wall was a door that looked just like the door to enter, he guessed that it led to a bathroom.
Tobin slipped past him and walked towards the bed in the back right corner. "I wonder why she chose that one," he thought to himself. He followed her into the room though, going to the bed next to hers in the back left of the room. He wanted to be closer to the window, he loved the sun. There were dark wood dressers next to each of the beds, about 5 feet tall. He threw his bag onto his bed, then followed it and jumped onto the bed. Tobin turned at the noise he made, and he gave her a lopsided smile, but she just shook her head at him like he was 10 years old.
She opened her bag and began pulling out clothes and putting it in the dresser. He saw a few of the black off-the-shoulder tops with the gold flecked sleeves. She had a few pairs of her tights that she wore as well. They were black, and faded into gold around her calves. She pulled out some other clothes, including school uniforms and some other clothes that he'd be surprised if he ever saw her wear. Once she was done putting away her clothes, she unzipped another portion of her bag and pulled out a set of sheets. From what Logan saw, they were black. "Big surprise," he thought. She pulled out a pillow as well, and put a black pillowcase on it, but it was flecked with gold like her shirts were. Once that was finished, she sat, reached into her bag again, and pulled out a book. The front cover said American Sniper, but he had no idea what American was. He decided he should probably unpack himself, and did a kick to lift himself off of his newly claimed bed and land on the carpeted floor.
When he landed, Tobin looked up at the noise, but almost immediately looked back down to her book, ignoring him for the time being. She seemed really interested in the book, he'd have to ask about it later, after all, cats aren't the only curious animals. He smiled at that thought, and turned to his bag to start unpacking. He pulled out a few gold v-necks and a few pairs of his low sitting black jeans. Next came a few of the school uniforms, and a white leather belt that he wore with his normal outfit. He zipped open a side pocket of the luggage and pulled out a few pairs of Nike Elite socks and a few low socks, also Nike. Also in that pocket were his boxers. On the other side, he had some workout stuff, things like some basketball shorts and a few tanks, gold of course.
He opened another bag to get to his sheets. They were actually a lot like Tobin's, black. His had gold stripes on the comforter though, that led to the end, getting thicker until the end was full gold. His sheets finished, he walked into the bathroom to put away his toothbrush and all of his other toiletries, like razors and soap. He walked back into the room, greeted by his brother and Cyanna finally having showed up.
"Not bad, the rooms are bigger than I expected," Shane commented. "We'll definitely have to spruce up the walls though. So boring."
"For sure," Cyanna said. "I see you and Tobin have claimed your beds. Not sure why you two chose further from the door though. You'll all die in a fire, and Shane and I will live. Haha."
"I think you're being a bit overdramatic Cya," Logan answered her.
"Hey puppy, you never know."
"Don't call me that. I'm not even a dog and you know it," Logan told her, though he was smiling.
"Wolf babies are called pups too," she told him, a smile on her face as well.
"Alright you two. Hey Logan, what time is it," Shane asked him.
"I think it's about 22:00. We should probably get some rest, and you two should unpack. Where have you been this whole time by the way?"
"Exploring a bit. We saw the rooms we'd be in for class tomorrow, that'll probably helpful. By the way, do you have the same schedule as Cya and I," Shane asked him.
"I would guess so. I feel like they would keep teams together, Why else would they even put us in them. Here's my schedule though." Shane looked them over for a moment, then handed Logan his back.
"Yep, we have everything together. First class is at 08:00 right?" Logan glanced down at his schedule and nodded.
"Yep, 08:00. You guys should unpack and get some rack. If anyone wants to shower tonight, that'd probably help with congestion tomorrow morn-"
"Alright, Fearless Leader, we get it, you are the leader and you make the rules."
"Just trying to help out man," Logan answered.
"Just teasing. It'll only take me a few to get unpacked, so if you want to brush your teeth and wash your face or whatever I'll grab the bathroom right after you."
"Sounds good. Tobin, you can jump in now as well if you want. I'm just brushing my teeth and washing my face. We can do more than one person at a time in there." She looked up at him from that book, and nodded. She sat up off of her bed and reached into her bag, grabbing a toothbrush and toothpaste. He walked into the bathroom, and she was about a meter behind him. He grabbed his toothbrush from the little stand that sat on the sink counter, and pulled his toothpaste from on the counter. Tobin stood next to him, and he looked over at her, an easy smile on his face. She looked at him, and he could swear he saw the corners of her mouth quirk up, but then they stopped and she turned her beautiful gold eyes from his. "I wish I knew why she's so adamant about ignoring me. I don't think I did anything wrong. Maybe she just doesn't like me. We're partners though, we have to get along. That first night though, she was talking to me, and smiling, and acting like she enjoyed talking to me." All this went through his mind as he brushed his teeth. He caught himself looking at her in the mirror more than once, but he didn't think she ever noticed. At least he hoped not. He finished brushing his teeth, and then washed his face.
He walked back into the room to see Cya and Shane sitting next to each other on Shane's green comforter, laughing at some video playing on Shane's scroll. Logan didn't fail to notice how close they were sitting. He was happy for his brother, glad that he found someone to spend some time with while he was here, maybe past it. He had thought that maybe he had too, but Tobin wasn't proving him right currently. As he climbed into bed, he looked over at Tobin and gave her another smile, and this time he knew he had seen her lips quirk up. He turned over in bed, knowing that she still liked him. Now he just had to figure out why she wouldn't show it.
So that was the teams ceremony. We've got our teams, at least the important ones. I know it's been forever since I've posted, but know that I'm in high school, and that I have a girlfriend, and a ton of other stuff. I write when I can, but between baseball conditioning, homework, and trying to have a life with my girlfriend and other friends, I don't get a ton of time to do so. I've decided that I'll be splitting chapters up into 4000-5000 word pieces but I'll be posting a few in the span of a week, then writing the next two or three. I've got another that'll come a few days from now, all about the first day. I'm happy with this one, and the next one will be interesting, at least the end will be. For now, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, and I'd love to see some reviews on this one. I got nothing for the last one, which sucks, but I know that people tend to skip stories with one or two chapters, not knowing if they should get invested in a story that may not continue. I do it, I'm sure I'm not the only one. Know that I'm still writing, and I don't plan to stop, this story is too interesting to plot for. See you on the flip guys. Dark out.